Method and system for providing directory assistance to erroneous telephone calls

ABSTRACT

A method and system for providing directory assistance to erroneous calls. The method and system includes an intercept system that intercepts erroneous calls and automatically routes them to a directory assistance service. The directory assistance service provides a least one advertisement and a variety of other services to the callers using a business subscriber information service, a white page database service; a yellow pages database service; a business intelligence database service; rule-based expert system service; and/or an Internet search service. The directory assistance service accepts fees from advertisers, businesses and providers of the variety of services to refer information to callers.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation-In-Part (CIP) of U.S. applicationSer. No. 11/805,531, filed May 23, 2007, that issued as U.S. Pat. No.7,573,993, on Aug. 11, 2009 which is a Continuation of U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/064,402, filed on Jul. 10, 2002, that issued as U.S. Pat.No. 7,227,936, on Jun. 5, 2007, the contents of all of which areincorporated by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to intercepting erroneoustelephone calls, and more particularly to providing directory assistanceand other services to a caller who makes a telephone call to anunavailable or erroneous telephone number for which a telephony companymay have limited information.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Telephone systems, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN),often intercept calls attempted by a customer that cannot be completedas dialed for any of a variety of reasons, such as a disconnectedsubscriber, the dialed number being out of service, or the dialed numberbeing reserved for other uses. The telephone system typically directsthe caller to an intercept system and the intercept system may thencommunicate the unavailable status of the dialed number to the caller,via a recorded voice message or sequence of tones transmitted back tothe caller. For example, the intercept system may playback recordinginforming a caller that the number cannot be completed as dialed, thenumber is not serviceable from the caller's area code, the number is notin service, the number is disconnected, that a zero, one, and/or areacode should be dialed when calling the number, and the like. Suchintercept systems are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,337to Cofer and U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,666 to Cobb, et al.

While useful in indicating to the caller that the attempted call cannotbe completed as dialed, a limitation common to conventional interceptsystems is that they typically provide minimal, if any, additionalinformation regarding the status of the dialed number other than it hasbeen disconnected, out-of-order, or otherwise unavailable. For example,when a caller dials a disconnected number, the recorded messagetransmitted to the caller over the telephone network generally includesa variation of the phrase: The number you have dialed has beendisconnected or is no longer in service. Please check the number and tryagain. This is followed by a disconnection of the call. Accordingly, theresulting message provides the caller little insight as to why thedialed number is unavailable.

To remedy the situation, the caller typically must disconnect, or hangup, from the call and place a second call to a directory assistanceservice (DAS) to obtain additional information regarding the unavailablenumber or to obtain an alternate telephone number, thereby causingconsiderable inconvenience to the caller. Examples of directoryassistance services are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No.3,928,724 issued to Byram, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,206 issued toPadden, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,855 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,719,both issued to Daudelin.

When a call is placed to a directory assistance service, the callerusually provides one or more descriptors, such as a name, telephonenumber, or address to the service via either an operator or throughvoice recognition software. The directory assistance service thensearches one or more databases for information associated with thedescriptors and provides the information, if any, to the caller eithervia an operator or by an automated voice synthesis system. However, totake advantage of the benefits of directory assistance, the callergenerally must have prior knowledge of the specific telephone numberused to reach the directory assistance (e.g., 865-555-1212 or 411). Tofurther complicate matters, there are a number of local, regional, andnationwide directory assistance services. Accordingly, a callerunfamiliar with a certain locality or region may not have offhandknowledge of the number used to contact the local or regional directoryassistance associated with the area. As a result, the caller typicallymust spend considerable time and effort in locating the directoryassistance number before the caller can obtain information regarding thecaller's previously unsuccessful telephone call to the unavailablenumber.

In view of the limitations of known intercept systems and directoryassistance services, a system and method for providing directoryassistance to customers attempting to place calls to unavailable numberswould be advantageous.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with preferred embodiments of the invention, some of theproblems associated with providing directory assistance to customersattempting to place calls to unavailable numbers are overcome. A methodand system for providing directory assistance to erroneous calls ispresented.

The method and system includes an intercept system that interceptserroneous calls and automatically routes them to a directory assistanceservice. The directory assistance service provides a least oneadvertisement and a variety of other services to the callers using abusiness subscriber information service, a white page database service;a yellow pages database service; a business intelligence databaseservice; rule-based expert system service and/or an Internet searchservice. The directory assistance service accepts fees from advertisers,businesses and providers of the variety of services to refer informationto callers.

The foregoing and other features and advantages of preferred embodimentsof the present invention will be more readily apparent from thefollowing detailed description. The detailed description proceeds withreferences to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described withreference to the following drawings, wherein:

FIGS. 1 and 2 are block diagrams illustrating exemplary mechanisms forrouting erroneous calls to a directory assistance service;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary mechanism forproviding directory assistance to a caller attempting to place anerroneous call;

FIG. 4 a is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary directoryassistance service;

FIG. 4 b is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary directoryassistance service and supporting database services connected to callprocessing components;

FIG. 4 c is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary directoryassistance service and supporting database services stored with anintercept database and connected to call processing components;

FIG. 4 d is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary directoryassistance service and supporting database services stored with adirectory assistance database and connected to call processingcomponents; and

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b are a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary operationof a system for providing directory assistance to a caller attempting toplace an erroneous call in accordance with at least one embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIGS. 1-5 illustrate a system and a method for routing erroneoustelephone calls to a directory assistance service for furtherassistance. An intercept system intercepts these erroneous calls andautomatically routes them to a directory assistance service. Thedirectory assistance service then can inform the caller of theunavailable status of the telephone number the caller is attempting todial. Likewise, the directory assistance service can be adapted toprovide any additional information associated with the unavailablenumber, such as an alternate number associated with the subscriber thecaller is attempting to contact, or one or more telephone numbers ofother subscribers similar to the intended subscriber. The directoryassistance service also can provide additional information regarding thealternate subscribers and/or advertisers. After providing the callerwith any associated information, the directory assistance service can beadapted to forward the caller to an alternate telephone number relatedto the original erroneous telephone number. Furthermore, in at least oneembodiment, the directory assistance service can be adapted to providegeneral or targeted advertisements to the caller in addition to, orinstead of, providing directory assistance to the caller.

An operating environment for the components and devices illustrated inFIGS. 1-5 include processing systems with one or more high speed CentralProcessing Unit(s) (“CPU”), processors and one or more memories. Inaccordance with the practices of persons skilled in the art of computerprogramming, the present invention is described below with reference toacts and symbolic representations of operations or instructions that areperformed by the processing system, unless indicated otherwise. Suchacts and operations or instructions are referred to as being“computer-executed,” “CPU-executed,” or “processor-executed.”

It will be appreciated that acts and symbolically represented operationsor instructions include the manipulation of electrical signals by theCPU or processor. An electrical system represents data bits which causea resulting transformation or reduction of the electrical signals, andthe maintenance of data bits at memory locations in a memory system tothereby reconfigure or otherwise alter the CPU's or processor'soperation, as well as other processing of signals. The memory locationswhere data bits are maintained are physical locations that haveparticular electrical, magnetic, optical, or organic propertiescorresponding to the data bits.

The data bits may also be maintained on a computer readable mediumincluding magnetic disks, optical disks, organic memory, and any othervolatile (e.g., Random Access Memory (“RAM”)) or non-volatile (e.g.,Read-Only Memory (“ROM”), flash memory, etc.) mass storage systemreadable by the CPU. The computer readable medium includes cooperatingor interconnected computer readable medium, which exist exclusively onthe processing system or can be distributed among multipleinterconnected processing systems that may be local or remote to theprocessing system.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, mechanisms to automatically routeerroneous telephone calls to one or more directory assistance servicesare illustrated in accordance with at least one embodiment of thepresent invention. The terms telephone and telephony equipment, as usedherein, refer to any of a variety of devices adapted to originate aconnection to another device and/or accept a connection from anotherdevice via a telephone network, where a telephone network can include aprivate telephone network, such as private branch exchange (PBX), apublic switched telephone network (PSTN), an integrated services digitalnetwork (ISDN), a fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) telephonenetwork, a cellular or wireless telephone network, a satellite telephonenetwork, and the like, or a combination thereof.

Likewise, telephone calls can be placed using digital data networks,such as the Internet, and hybrid telephone/digital data networks usingtechniques such as the Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) and voiceover digital subscriber line (VDSL). Accordingly, a telephone network inaccordance with the present invention can include a digital data networkconventionally used to carry various types of data, for example, theInternet or a local area network (LAN). Likewise, in this case, atelephone can include a device capable of communicating with a digitaldata network, for example, a networked personal computer implementing aVoIP software application. For ease of discussion, the implementationsof the present invention will be discussed herein with reference to aPSTN. However, the implementations of the present invention can beadapted to other types of telephone networks using the guidelinesprovided herein.

As is known in the art, VoIP is a set of facilities for managing thedelivery of voice information using Internet Protocol (IP) packets. Ingeneral, VoIP is used to send voice information in digital form indiscrete data packets (i.e., IP packets, User Datagram Protocols (UDP),etc.) over data networks rather than using traditional circuit-switchedprotocols used on the PSTN. VoIP is used on both wireless and wired datanetworks.

VoIP typically comprises several applications (e.g., Session InitiationProtocol (SIP), Service Location Protocol (SLP), H.323, H.324, DomainName System (DNS), Authentication Authorization and Accounting (AAA),codecs (G.7xx), etc.) that convert a voice signal into a stream ofpackets (e.g., IP packets) on a packet network and back again. VoIPallows voice signals to travel over a stream of data packets over acommunications network and/or telephony networks.

The terms to place a telephone call or to make a call and theirvariations, as used herein, are intended to refer to the act of a caller(a person or an apparatus directed by a person) signaling to a telephonenetwork that a connection is desired between the telephone device of thecaller and the telephone device associated with the dialed telephonenumber. The term “available telephone number” and its variants, as usedherein, are intended to refer to a telephone number that is in serviceand to which calls can successfully be placed. Conversely, the term“unavailable telephone number” and its variants, as used herein, areintended to refer to a telephone number that is not available to thecaller for whatever reason and therefore a call placed to the telephonenumber cannot be completed as dialed. An attempted telephone call placedto an unavailable telephone number is herein referred to as an“erroneous call.” Likewise, a caller attempting to place an erroneouscall is herein referred to as an erroneous caller.

Reasons for an unavailable telephone number can include, but are notlimited to: a disconnected subscriber; the telephone number is out oforder; the phone number is reserved for future use; the telephone numberis unavailable from the caller's area code; the caller failed to enter a1, 0, and/or area code before the number; the caller entered a 1, 0, orarea code before the number when unnecessary; the line is busy; the areacode is incorrect or unavailable, and the like. The attempted telephonecall can include, but is not limited to, a local telephone call, a tollcall (e.g., 900-XXX-XXXX), a toll-free call (i.e., 800-XXX-XXX,888-XXX-XXXX, etc.), a long distance call, an international call, a datacall using an IP or other network address, and the like. An unavailabletelephone number include numbers implemented by the telephone networkbut, for whatever reason, are unavailable. Additionally, an unavailabletelephone number can include numbers that are not implemented by thetelephone network (herein non-existent telephone numbers), such as:certain sequences of telephone digits (e.g., 800-1XX-XXXX and800-XXX-0XXX); numbers that do not exist (065-558-9594); telephonenumbers having area codes that are not implemented (e.g., 999-XXX-XXXX);and the like

In general, when a caller places a call to a destination telephonenumber, the telephone network, such as a PSTN, attempts to create acircuit between the originating telephone and the destination telephone.This circuit typically passes through a local central office connectedto the originating telephone, through one or more trunk lines and othercentral offices, until it reaches the remote central office connected tothe destination telephone. Additionally, if the call is a long-distancetelephone call, the circuit may route through the localpoint-of-presence (POP) and remote POP of the long distance carrier. Toillustrate, if a caller at telephone number (100) 555-0001 (telephone102) makes a long-distance call to the telephone number (200) 555-0001(telephone 108), then the circuit between the originating telephone 102and the destination telephone 108 could include a local central office(CO) 122, a local POP 124, the PSTN 132, a remote POP 126 and the remoteCO 128 connected to the telephone 108. Alternatively, if the telephone102 were to make a call to another telephone connected to the same CO122, such as telephone 104, the call circuit typically would be routedonly through the CO 122. Likewise, if a call were placed to telephonenumber (100) 556-0001 (telephone 106) on another CO 130 connected to theCO 122 without any intermediary COs between, then the call circuittypically would include at least CO 122 and CO 130. It should beunderstood that the circuits illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 are exemplaryonly and represent a simplified depiction of the routing associated withsuch networks.

After a circuit has been generated, or reserved, between the originatingtelephone and the destination telephone, the originating caller and theperson being called can commence their conversation. However, should thecaller place an erroneous call to an unavailable number, the telephonenetwork, at some point during the attempted call, routes the erroneouscaller to an intercept system, such as the automatic intercept system(AIS) 140 illustrated in FIG. 1.

An example automatic intercept system is available under the trade nameDistributed Automatic Intercept System 11 from Computer ConsolesIncorporated of Rochester, N.Y. Conventional intercept systems thenwould inform the erroneous caller as to the status of the dialed numberby playing a recorded voice message and then disconnect the caller,thereby freeing up the components of the circuit for use in other calls.As a result, the erroneous caller would then have to hang up, locate thenumber of a directory assistance service that potentially could assistthe caller, and then dial the directory assistance service.

However, rather than disconnecting the erroneous caller, in at least oneembodiment, a switch within the telephone network, such as at one of COs122, 128, 130, is adapted to detect and intercept an erroneous call andthen automatically forward the erroneous caller to the AIS 140 (asrepresented by the solid lines connecting to the AIS 140 in FIG. 1). Inthis case, the AIS 140 is adapted to route the erroneous caller to adirectory assistance service (DAS) 150, whereupon the DAS 150 is adaptedto assist the erroneous caller in obtaining directory assistanceregarding the unavailable number, such as by providing the status of thedialed number, alternate numbers for the subscriber associated with theunavailable number, and the like. The erroneous caller can then interactwith the DAS 150 to obtain the information.

In one embodiment, the DAS 150 uses the one or more information services(e.g., white pages, yellow pages, search engine searches (e.g., Google,Yahoo, MSN, etc.) public databases, private databases, etc.) used tosearch for information about the caller's telephone number and/or theerroneous/unavailable number. The information is collected from the oneor more information sources external to the telephony network, such asthose available on the Internet and other computer networks, white pageslisting, yellow pages listing, business directory listings, and one ormore information sources internal to the telephony network such astelephony subscriber information and subscriber billing information.

Alternatively, in at least one embodiment, an erroneous call is detectedby a switch within the PSTN 132, and rather than automatically routingthe erroneous caller to the intercept system 140, the switchautomatically routes the erroneous caller to the DAS 150 without theinvolvement of an intercept system such as the AIS 140 (as representedby the dashed lines in FIG. 1). In this case, the DAS 150 may beconsidered both a directory assistance service and an intercept system.

A variety of mechanisms for automatically routing telephones callswithin a telephone network are known to those skilled in the art, andany of these methods can be utilized in accordance with the presentinvention. For example, a Signaling System 7 (SS7) switching mechanismor a Dual Tone Multifrequency (DMTF) switching mechanism can be utilizedto route the erroneous call to a new destination (i.e., the DAS 150).

Although the AIS 140 and the DAS 150 are illustrated in FIG. 1 asseparate entities, in at least one embodiment, the functionality of theAIS 140 and the DAS 150 may be integrated into a single entity adaptedto provide both erroneous call interception as well as directoryassistance to erroneous callers.

In addition to, or instead of, simply informing an erroneous caller ofthe status of the dialed number (e.g., a recorded message that the callhas been disconnected, etc.), the DAS 150 can be adapted to provide oneor more related services to the erroneous caller. In one embodiment, theDAS 150 is adapted to provide one or more alternate numbers associatedwith the unavailable number. For example, if a subscriber moved and, asa result, disconnected its telephone service from one number andreconnected to another telephone number, the DAS 150 could search adatabase for the new number of the subscriber and provide it to thecaller as an alternative. Additional information could be providedregarding the subscriber, such as the previous or current address of thesubscriber, the date of the termination of service for the dialednumber, and the like. Likewise, the DAS 150 could be adapted to connectthe caller to one or more alternate numbers obtained from the DAS 150.In a manner, subscribers may be tagged with historical data, permittingthe DAS 150 to perform any number of smart functions and provide thecaller with helpful options. Accordingly, even though the initial callmade by the caller was to an unavailable number, the caller would nothave to hang up and dial another number to reach an alternate number.

Furthermore, in at least one embodiment, the DAS 150 is adapted tosearch a database for other subscribers that are associated withunavailable number due to one or more shared or similar characteristics.For example, if a caller dials the telephone number of a pizza parlorand the number is determined to be no longer in service, the DAS 150then could identify a new number for the desired pizza parlor and/orlocate another pizza parlor or other restaurant in the same locale andinform the caller of the availability of an alternate telephone number.The DAS 150 then can be adapted to automatically connect the caller tothe telephone number of the other pizza parlor/restaurant. Furthermore,the DAS 150 can be adapted to provide a list of telephone numbers of anumber of pizza parlors/restaurants in the same locale to the erroneouscaller. The caller may then select a desired number from the list ofnumbers and direct the DAS 150 to automatically connect the erroneouscaller to the selected telephone number.

Accordingly, although the erroneous caller may not be able to reach theoriginal intended pizza parlor, the caller could be provided withalternatives in the same geographical region that could suit thecaller's needs. As an adjunct to providing alternate numbers for thesame subscriber or alternate numbers for a related subscriber, the DAS150 can be adapted to play an advertisement, before, during, after thedirectory assistance information is being located and prepared forprovision to the erroneous caller. Alternatively, the DAS 150 can beadapted to provide one or more advertisements without providingdirectory assistance. The advertisement can include a generaladvertisement, or the advertisement can include a targeted advertisementselected based on one or more attributes of the caller and/or theerroneous telephone number the erroneous caller is attempting to call.Referring to the pizza parlor example above, a targeted advertisementcould be selected for playback to the erroneous caller based oninformation associated with the caller (e.g., such as whether the callerhas children), based on the number dialed (e.g., a pizza parlor), thearea of the origin and/or destination of the attempted phone call, andthe like.

The term unavailable subscriber, as used herein, refers to a subscriber,intended person or entity, if any, directly associated with theunavailable number. The unavailable subscriber can include anunavailable or previous subscriber of the unavailable number (i.e., thedisconnected subscriber) or the intended recipient can include a currentsubscriber of the unavailable number, such as when the number istemporarily unavailable due to a temporary malfunction at a centraloffice. In the illustrated embodiment, the telephones 104, 106, and 110are representative of unavailable numbers and/or intended recipients.Further, when a call is made by a caller to an unavailable number in anattempt to contact the unavailable subscriber, the unavailablesubscriber can be considered as the intended recipient of the telephonecall. Conversely, the terms available subscriber or alternatesubscriber, as used herein, are intended to refer to a currentsubscriber to an available number that shares one or morecharacteristics with the unavailable subscriber of the unavailablenumber. The one or more characteristics can include, for example, asimilar geographic location. Similarly, subscribers can be identified byone or more classifications, whereby the classification can includes oneor more classes and/or subclasses used to describe the activity and/ortype of subscriber, such as a business type and subtype of a subscriber.The telephones 102, 108 are representative of available subscribershaving available telephone numbers.

To illustrate, an unavailable subscriber could include a local policedepartment and have a classification of Government:EmergencyServices:Police. However, if the telephone number to this policedepartment were unavailable for some reason, the DAS 150 could determinean alternate subscriber having a similar or exact classification, suchas a local fire department having a classification ofGovernment:Emergency Services:Fire, since the class (Government) and thefirst subclass (Emergency Services) of both the unavailable subscriberand the available subscriber are the same, the DAS 150 can provide thenumber of the local fire department to the caller as an alternatenumber. Further, the DAS 150 could detect that the intended entity is apolice department, that the dialed number is for whatever reasonunavailable, prompt the caller with an inquiry to confirm that thecaller is attempting to contact the police department, and then redirectthe caller to an alternate police department close to the policedepartment the caller is intending to contact.

It will be appreciated that an unavailable subscriber and an availablesubscriber often can include the same entity. To illustrate, if asubscriber were to disconnect from one telephone number, move to a newlocation, and subscribe to a new number, the subscriber couldsimultaneously be an unavailable subscriber via the disconnected numberand an available subscriber via the newly connected number. Accordingly,the DAS 150 can be adapted to search for new or alternate numbers of theprevious subscriber to the unavailable line, such as by searching forthe subscriber's name in a database of current phone numbers.

Rather than, or in addition to, automatically determining alternatenumbers based on one or more characteristics associated with the callerand/or the intended subscriber/telephone number, the DAS 150, in oneembodiment, is further adapted to provide yellow pages directoryservices to an erroneous caller. After an erroneous call is interceptedand routed to the DAS 150, the caller can provide information to the DAS150 indicating the name and/or type of subscriber the caller would liketo contact. Based on this caller-provided information, the DAS 150 canquery a directory database to identify any entries that match or aresubstantially similar to the information provided by the caller. The DAS150 then can present the identified entries, if any, to the caller. Thecaller then may select an entry and direct the DAS 150 to connect thecaller to the telephone number associated with the selected entry.

The information provided by a caller for yellow pages directory servicecan include a variety of information that can be used to identifysubscribers in a telephone network. As with printed versions of theyellow pages telephone directory, a caller can provide informationrepresentative of a business type (such as automotive repair), a partialor full name of a business, organization, or private entity, and thelike. The caller also can provide additional information to limit thescope of the search, such as a certain geographical area, certainbusiness hours, and the like. To illustrate, assume a caller attemptingto contact a car dealership that is no longer in business is routed tothe DAS 150. At the DAS 150, the caller can request a yellow pagesdirectory service and direct the DAS 150 to provide information aboutcar dealerships in the local area by indicating car dealership as thebusiness type to the DAS 150 and a particular car make (e.g., HONDA) asa business subtype. Accordingly, the DAS 150 can search one or moreyellow pages databases to identify one or more HONDA dealerships in thelocal area. The DAS 150 then can provide information about theidentified dealerships, such as their telephone numbers, locations,business hours, etc. Any of a variety of mechanisms may be utilized toobtain yellow pages directory service information from a caller. Forexample, the caller can speak directly to a human operator of the DAS150. Alternatively, the DAS 150 can employ voice recognition software toconvert the caller's speech into text, which is then parsed into searchfields. The caller also could use the keyboard or keypad of thetelephone device used to place the call to provide some or all of theinformation to the DAS 150. Although a number of exemplary mechanismsfor providing information from the caller to the DAS 150 for yellowpages directory service have been discussed, those skilled in the artcan develop other mechanisms using the guidelines provided herein.

Furthermore, in at least one embodiment, the system 100 is adapted toprovide one or more advertisements to the erroneous caller while thecaller is waiting for directory assistance, during directory assistance,or afterwards, such as while the call is being forwarded to a differenttelephone number. A mechanism to provide telephone advertisements isdisclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,625 to Lederman. Theadvertisements can be inserted by routing the call to an advertisementsystem (not shown), which then routes the call to the DAS 150, as taughtby Lederman. In this case, the advertisement system can periodicallyinterrupt the directory assistance service and insert an advertisement.Alternatively, the call can be routed directly to the DAS 150, where theDAS 150 is further adapted to provide one or more advertisements to thecaller during the directory assistance. These and other services thatcan be provided by the DAS 150 are discussed in greater detail withreference to FIG. 3.

Although an exemplary simplified telephone network is illustrated inFIG. 1 to describe, in general, the mechanism utilized to connect anoriginating telephone and a destination telephone during an attemptedcall, other telephone network architectures can be used in accordancewith the present invention. Likewise, it will be appreciated thatalthough the PSTN 132 typically incorporates the COs 122, 128 and thePOPs 124, 126, they have been illustrated as separate entities in FIG. 1for ease of discussion.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, an erroneous call can be intercepted andprovided to a directory assistance service at any of a variety of pointsalong the telephone network between the originating telephone device andthe intended calling destination. In the illustrated embodiment,telephone 102 is the originating telephone, the telephone 104 representsan unavailable number associated with the same central office (CO 122)connected to the telephone 102. The telephone 106 represents anunavailable number associated with a CO 130, where the CO 130 can beconnected to the CO 122 without the use of a long-distance carrier. Thetelephone 108 represents a working telephone number that can beconnected to the telephone 102 via a long-distance connection. On theother hand, the telephone 110 represents an unavailable telephoneassociated with the CO 128 that is remote to the CO 122 (therebynecessitating a long-distance connection between the two central officesduring an attempted call).

Assume that telephone 102 places a local call to the unavailable number(100) 555-0002 (telephone 104). In this case, since both the originatingnumber of telephone 102, (100) 555-0001, and the destination number,(100) 555-0002, are managed by the same CO 122, no further switchingthrough the PSTN 132 generally is necessary. In this case, a switch atthe CO 122 attempting to generate a circuit between the telephone 102and the telephone 104 determines that the destination number is anunavailable number. The switch then routes the call to the DAS 150,either directly or through the AIS 140. A variety of mechanisms may beused by the CO 122 to intercept the erroneous call. For example, theswitch at the CO 122 could include an intercept database of theunavailable numbers connected to the CO 122. The switch could thensearch the intercept database for the dialed number, and if located inthe database, route the call to the DAS 150 directly or via the AIS 140.Other mechanisms for intercepting calls to unavailable numbers known tothose skilled in the art may be used without departing from the spiritor the scope of the present invention.

In the event that the telephone 102 places a call to the unavailablenumber (100) 556-0001, which is still local but connected to a differentCO 130, the erroneous call can be intercepted at either the CO 122 orthe CO 130. For example, the CO 122 could query the CO 130 to see if thedialed number is unavailable. If the number is unavailable, then the CO122 could then direct the call to the DAS 150 to provide the caller withdirectory assistance. Alternatively, the CO 122, without knowledge ofthe status of the subscriber line associated with the dialed number,could then open a circuit between the CO 122 and the CO 130 for theattempted call. In this case, the CO 130 would then determine that theattempted call is an erroneous call to the unavailable number and routethe call to the DAS 150 accordingly.

Since, in this case, the telephone 108 represents a working telephonenumber, (200) 555-0001, a call placed to this number by the telephone102 presumably would be successful barring any failures between the CO122 and the CO 128. A circuit would be created between the telephone122, the local POP 124 of the long-distance carrier, the PSTN 132, theremote POP 126 of the long-distance carrier, the remote CO 128, andfinally the telephone 108. However, a long-distance call placed to thetelephone number (200) 555-0002 (telephone 110) would be unsuccessfulsince the number is unavailable in the illustrated example. Accordingly,at some point between the telephone 102 and the telephone 110, the callwould be routed to the DAS 150, either directly or via the AIS 140, toprovide directory assistance to the erroneous caller. The erroneous callcould be intercepted at the CO 122, at the local POP 124, at some pointalong the PSTN 132, at the remote POP 126, and/or at the remote CO 126.

The point at which the erroneous call is intercepted and subsequentlyautomatically routed to the DAS 150 can be based on any of a variety offactors. One factor includes the ability of an element of the system 100to determine that the call is an erroneous call. To illustrate, the CO122 or local POP 124 typically are unlikely to have prior knowledge thatthe telephone number (202) 555-0002 is unavailable, due to separation ofthe CO 122 and the local POP 124 from the CO 128 as well as the sheernumber of subscribers connected to the PSTN 132. To have such knowledgegenerally would require the CO 122 to maintain a relatively largedatabase, as well as a mechanism to update the database when the statusof a subscriber changes.

However, since the CO 130 is one logical node from the CO 122, it ismore feasible that the CO 122 could maintain knowledge of theunavailable numbers of the CO 130. For example, central officestypically manage about 10,000 subscriber lines (i.e., telephone lines).Assuming that no more that 10% of the subscriber lines are unavailableand that a central office is directly connected to no more than 10 othercentral offices, a central office would only need to manage an interceptdatabase of around 10,000 entries (10,000 subscribers/central office*10central offices*10% unavailable numbers). As a result, an erroneoustelephone call from telephone 102 to the unavailable number (100)555-0002 could easily be intercepted at either CO 122 or CO 130 andredirected to the DAS 150.

In the same vein, since the remote POP 126 is more local to theunavailable number, the remote POP 126 is more likely to have priorknowledge that the telephone number (200) 555-0002 is an unavailablenumber than either the local CO 122 or the local POP 124. However, themost feasible point to intercept an erroneous long distance call inaccordance with the present invention typically includes the remote CO128 associated with the unavailable telephone number. In this case, theCO 128 would detect that a call is being attempted to the unavailablenumber and route the call to the DAS 150 accordingly or the CO 128 couldsignal to the originating CO of the call that the number is unavailableand the originating CO could route the call to the DAS 150. Althoughsome points are more likely to be utilized to intercept erroneous calls,any point between the originating caller and the central officeassociated with the unavailable number may be used to intercepterroneous calls in accordance with the present invention.

Another factor that can be used in determining the point at which anerroneous call is intercepted includes the type of directory assistanceservice to be provided. In at least one embodiment, the DAS 150 caninclude any of a variety of geographically-based directory assistanceservices, such as a local directory assistance service, a or regionaldirectory assistance service, a national local directory assistanceservice, an international directory assistance service, and the like.The DAS 150 also can include one or more specialized directoryassistance services, such as 800 directory assistance, governmentdirectory assistance, and the like. Accordingly, the point where a callis intercepted can be based on the type of directory assistance providedby the DAS 150. For example, if the DAS 150 includes a nationwidedirectory assistance service, the erroneous call could be interceptedand routed to the DAS 150 at any point between the originating CO andthe destination CO. However, if the DAS 150 includes a local directoryassistance service, the most benefit typically would be provided if thecall were intercepted at the point of the PSTN 132 closest to thedestination of the erroneous call. For example, if the telephone 102were to a long-distance call to the unavailable number (200) 555-0002and the call were intercepted at the CO 122 and provided to a localversion of the DAS 150 specific to the region where the CO 122 islocated, the directory assistance provided by the local DAS 150 isunlikely to be of much assistance to the caller since the dialed numberis in a different locality. However, if the erroneous call were to beintercepted at the CO 128 and provided to a local version of the DAS 150specific to the region of the CO 128, then the DAS 150 is more likely tohave access to the appropriate information desired by the erroneouscaller.

Likewise, the cost of the call to the DAS 150 may be considered whenintercepting and routing the erroneous call. To save the customer money,an erroneous call made locally could be directed to a local version ofthe DAS 150, thereby avoiding a long-distance toll on the directoryassistance call. Alternatively, all erroneous calls, whether local orlong-distance, could be routed to a nationwide version of the DAS 150,where the telephone service provider could receive consideration in theform of a long-distance charge in exchange for providing the directoryassistance to the caller.

Referring now to FIG. 3, various services that can be provided by theDAS 150 are illustrated in greater detail in accordance the presentinvention. In at least one embodiment, the DAS 150 includes, or hasaccess to, one or more databases having information related to thetelephone numbers serviced by the DAS 150, such as unavailable numberdatabase 310, available number database 350, and advertisement database370. The DAS 150 can then utilize the information contained in thesedatabases, as well as other databases, to inform the erroneous caller ofthe status of the line, provide additional information, providealternate information, provide advertisements, and the like.

To illustrate, when an erroneous call is routed to the DAS 150, asdescribed previously, the DAS 150 can be adapted to search theunavailable number database 310 for the unavailable number and itsassociated information. In the illustrated embodiment, the unavailablenumber database 310 includes a number of entries 312-326 each having asubscriber number field 330, an unavailable subscriber identifier field332, a subscriber descriptor field 334, a classification field 336, atype field 338, a subtype field 340, and a location field 342, as wellas other fields, as appropriate. The subscriber number field 330includes an unavailable number and the unavailable subscriber identifierfield 332 includes an identifier associated with the unavailablesubscriber of the unavailable number, if any, such as a name or customeridentification number. The subscriber descriptor field 334 includes adescriptor of the unavailable subscriber. In the exemplary subscriberdescriptor field 334 of FIG. 3, a C indicates a commercial subscriber, aP indicates a private subscriber (i.e., a home residence), a U indicatesthat the unavailable subscriber information is unavailable or that thetelephone number wasn't previously assigned to a subscriber, and a Rindicates that the number has been reserved for some reason or another.The classification field 336 includes a classification of thesubscriber, such as a restaurant (Food), a service business (Service),or if the unavailable subscriber was a non-commercial entity, if thesubscriber was Listed or Unlisted. Likewise, the type field 338 and thesubtype field 340 further classify the subscriber by providingsubclasses of the subscriber classification. For example, the entry 312includes an unavailable subscriber Pete's Pizza, which was a pizzaparlor at one time prior to Pete's Pizza disconnecting its subscriptionto the telephone number (100) 555-0002. Accordingly, the type field 338and subtype field 340 include the indicators Fast-Food and Pizza,respectively.

Should the telephone number later be reassigned to another person orbusiness, the related information could be updated or supplemented. Thelocation field 342 can include any of a variety of indicators of thephysical location of the subscriber, such as a zip code, an area code,an address, a city name, a county name, and the like. Likewise, thelocation field 342 can include an indirect location identifier, such asan identifier or location of the central office to which thecorresponding subscriber is connected. In the illustrated embodiment,the location field 342 includes the zip codes of the associatedsubscribers.

Likewise, the available number database 350, in the illustratedembodiment, includes a plurality of entries 352-360 corresponding to aplurality of available subscribers and their associated telephonenumbers. As with the unavailable number database 310, the availablenumber database 350 includes, but is not limited to, a subscriber numberfield 330, a subscriber descriptor field 334, a classification field336, a type field 338, a subtype field 340, and a location field 342.Additionally, the available number database 350 includes an availablesubscriber identifier field 362, analogous to the unavailable subscriberfield, whereby an identifier of the available subscriber, such as a nameor customer code, is stored.

When an erroneous call is routed to the DAS 150, the DAS 150 can beadapted to search the unavailable number database 310 to locateinformation associated with the unavailable number dialed by the caller.Once the information is found, if present, the DAS 150 can provide someor all of the associated information to the caller. For example, if thecaller dialed the disconnected number (100) 555-0021, the DAS 150 couldfind the corresponding entry 320 in the unavailable number database 310and provide the name of the intended recipient to the caller, allowingthe caller to confirm the intended destination of the call.

Additionally, in at least one embodiment, the DAS 150 is adapted tosearch the available subscriber database 350 to provide informationrelative to the unavailable number to the erroneous caller. Toillustrate, assume that a caller dialed (100) 555-0005 in an attempt toreach John Doe. Since this number has, in this example, beendisconnected, the erroneous call is intercepted and routed to the DAS150. The DAS 150 then searches the unavailable number database 310 forthe corresponding entry (entry 314). The DAS 150, noting the name of theintended recipient (i.e., the unavailable subscriber), searches theavailable number database 350 for a corresponding entry for John Doe.Finding the entry 356, the DAS 150 can provide the updated phone numberfor John Doe, (100) 555-1003, in the corresponding subscriber numberfield 330 to the caller. Likewise, the DAS 150 can be adapted to connectthe caller to the updated number, either automatically or by promptingthe caller in the event that the same subscriber has not subscribed to adifferent number, the DAS 150, in at least one embodiment, is adapted tosearch for one or more available subscribers similar to the unavailablesubscriber and to provide information associated with the one or moreavailable subscribers to the caller as an alternative. As discussedpreviously, an alternate subscriber includes a current subscriber havingone or more characteristics, such as geographical location and/orsubscriber classification, which are similar to the characteristics ofthe unavailable subscriber. For example, assume that a caller dialed(100) 555-0002 (entry 312) and was routed to the DAS 150 because thisnumber has been disconnected. Accordingly, the DAS 150 can locate entry312 in the unavailable number database 310 and determine that theunavailable subscriber has the classification Food:Fast Food:Pizza basedon fields 336-340. Using this classification, the DAS 150 can search theavailable number database 350 for entries having a similarclassification. In this case, entries 352 and 354 have subscribers thathave classifications exactly matching the unavailable subscriber'sclassification. Likewise, the entry 356 includes the subscriber BurgerMart having a classification of Food:Fast Food:Hamburgers, which issimilar to the classification of the intended subscriber.

In the event that one or more similarly classified entries have beenlocated, the DAS 150 can inform the caller of the existence ofalternatives to the intended subscriber and provide the informationassociated with one or more of the alternatives to the caller. If two ormore alternatives exist, information for all of the alternatives can beprovided to the caller, or a subset of alternatives could be providedbased on a number of factors. For one, the alternatives chosen could beselected based on their physical proximity to the unavailablesubscriber. For example, the subscriber to the telephone number (100)555-0002 (entry 312), Pete's Pizza, was at one point in time, located inthe zip code 10002 and, in this example, the Pizza Palace is located inzip code, whereas Pasta and Pizza is located in the zip code 10001.Accordingly, since Pete's Pizza (the intended recipient) and PizzaPalace (an alternate subscriber) are located in the same zip code, theDAS 150 can provide the information associated with the Pizza Palace. Ina similar manner, the DAS 150 could be adapted to determine the distancebetween the address of an intended recipient and one or more alternateavailable subscribers and then provide information associated with oneor more of the alternate subscribers closest to the location, prior orcurrent, of the intended recipient (i.e., the unavailable subscriber).

Likewise, the alternate subscribers could be chosen based on the degreeto which the classifications of the alternates match the classificationof the unavailable subscriber. Alternatively, the subscribers could beranked based on the size of a payment made by the subscribers to belisted in the available number database 350, and the higher rankedalternatives are provided before the lower ranked alternatives.

As discussed above, in one embodiment, the DAS 150 is adapted to providea yellow pages directory service to an erroneous caller, where thecaller provides information to the DAS 150 regarding the subscriber(s)the caller is attempting to contact. Using this information, the DAS 150searches one or more databases, such as available subscriber database350, for entries conforming to the caller-provided information. Theinformation associated with the identified entry or entries can beprovided to the caller, and the caller can select an entry to direct theDAS 150 to forward the caller to the telephone number associated withthe selected entry. To illustrate, assume a call placed by a callerattempting to call the disconnected number for Jan's Beauty Salon (entry316) could be intercepted and routed to the DAS 150. The DAS 150, inthis case, could prompt the erroneous caller to provide informationregarding the intended recipient of the call. This information couldinclude, for example, information indicating that the caller is lookingfor a hair salon. This information can be conveyed to the DAS 150 bytext conversion of the caller's speech, input by an human operatorconversing with the caller, text input via the caller's keyboard orkeypad, navigation through nested lists, and the like. To illustrate,DAS 150 could provide a listing of business types via an audiotransmission and the caller could select the desired business (personalservice) by pressing a number key associated with the personal serviceentry of the business type listing. The DAS 150 then could furthernarrow the search field by presenting a list personal service business.Again, the caller could refine the search by pressing the number keyassociated, for example, with the beauty salon of the personal servicebusiness list.

Using the caller-supplied information, the DAS 150 can search theavailable subscriber database 350 for one or more entries having similarcharacteristics. In the illustrated example, Mary's Hair Salon (entry360) is within the parameters as defined by the caller. Accordingly, theDAS 150 can, in this example, provide information associated with Mary'sHair Salon, such as the telephone number, location, business hours, etc.The caller may then direct the DAS 150 to forward the caller to thetelephone number associated with Mary's Hair Salon.

In certain instances, a caller may attempt to place a telephone call toan unavailable number that is a non-existent number, i.e., a number thatis not supported by the telephone network (as discussed above). As such,it will be appreciated that there typically will be little, if anyinformation associated with the non-existent telephone number. In suchan instance, the DAS 150, noting the attempt to call a non-existentphone number, may forego attempting to identify alternate telephonenumbers since there typically is no information upon which to establishsuch a comparison. Rather, the DAS 150 may take any of a number ofactions. For one, the DAS 150 can provide directory assistance withoutautomatically providing alternate numbers. Alternatively, the DAS 150automatically provide yellow pages directory assistance, therebyallowing the caller to locate an alternate number by providinginformation regarding the caller's intended call recipient. Anotheraction that the DAS 150 can take is to analyze historic informationrelated to the dialed nonexistent number. For example, numerous callerscould have confused an existing and available telephone with anon-existent number and then dialed the non-existent number.Accordingly, the DAS 150 can determine the number dialed most often bythe callers after dialing the non-existent number and provide thisnumber as an alternate number to subsequent callers to the non-existentnumber. The DAS 150 can forward the caller to a human operator, who maythen assist the caller in finding the appropriate alternate number.Before, during, and/or after the performance of any of the aboveactions, the DAS 150 can be adapted to provide one or moreadvertisements to the caller.

As discussed previously, in at least one embodiment, the DAS 150additionally is adapted to provide one or more advertisements to thecaller before, during, and/or after rendering directory assistance tothe caller. Accordingly, the DAS 150 can have access to one or moreadvertisement databases 370 having one or more entries 372-380corresponding to available advertisements. The advertisements caninclude commercials, public service announcements (PSAs), informationregarding certain topics, such as the weather or emergency situations,and the like. The advertisement database 370 can have an adidentification field 382, an ad name field 384, as well as theclassification field 336, type field 338, subtype field 340 and locationfield 342, such as discussed above.

As discussed above, rather than, or in addition to, providing directoryassistance, the DAS 150, in one embodiment, is adapted to provide one ormore general advertisements to a caller. When a general advertisement isto be provided to the caller, the DAS 150 can select one or more of theadvertisements from the advertisement database 370 based on a number offactors. In one embodiment, the advertisements are selected in a mannersimilar to a circular queue, whereby each advertisement is selected andplayed in turn. In another embodiment, the advertisements are selectedbased on a rank, whereby the rank of an advertisement may be determined,for example, based on the amount of consideration the provider of theDAS 150 received from the advertiser.

Alternatively, in addition to, or instead of, generalizedadvertisements, one or more targeted advertisements can be provided tothe caller based on the properties of the erroneous call. If a callerwere to call, for example, the disconnected number (100) 555-0009 in anattempt to reach Jan's Beauty Salon, the erroneous call would beintercepted and routed to the DAS 150, whereby the DAS 150 locates thenumber at entry 316 of the database 310. The DAS 150 can then search thedatabase 350 for a current number for Jan's Beauty Supply oralternatives based on classification, location, and the like. In thiscase, an alternative can be found at entry 360 (Mary's Hair Salon) basedon a match between their classifications. Accordingly, the DAS 150 canprovide the telephone number for Mary's Hair Salon to the caller.

Before, during, or after this information is provided, the DAS 150 cansearch the advertisement database 370 for an advertisement entry relatedto the information desired by the caller. In this case, an advertisementhaving a classification that matches the classification(Service:Personal:Hair) of Jan's Beauty Salon can be found at entry 378of the advertisement database 370 corresponding to an advertisement forBob's Barber. Accordingly, the DAS 150 can select the advertisement forBob's Barber and provide this message to the caller before, during,and/or after the directory assistance. Similarly, a call to theunavailable number (100) 555-0002 could result in the DAS 150 providingone or more of the advertisements for Pasta and Pizza, Pizza Palace, andBurger Mart, since their classifications match, exactly or partially,the classification of Pete's Pizzeria. Likewise, the DAS 150 canmaintain, or have access to, a caller information database 390 havinginformation associated with customers of the telephone network(s). Theinformation associated with callers can include various types ofinformation, such as the marital status of the caller, informationregarding the caller's family, the caller's interests, recent purchases,and the like. The information in the caller information database 390 canbe obtained from a third party, from surveys, census information, andthe like. In the illustrated example, the caller information database390 includes entries 392-396 having the current subscriberidentification field 330, a marital status field 344, a family field346, an interests field 348, and a recent purchases field 398. Althoughthe above fields are illustrated, those skilled in the art may implementother/additional information fields using the guidelines providedherein.

In one embodiment, the DAS 150 can identify the caller, such as bytelephone number, and locate the corresponding entry in the callerinformation database 390. The DAS 150 then can select one or moretargeted advertisements from advertisement database 370 based at leastin part on the information in the corresponding entry. For example, ifKyle Mark (entry 394) were to make an erroneous call that is interceptedand routed to the DAS 150, the DAS 150, noting that Kyle Mark recentlypurchased a home (based on the recent purchases field 398), could selectAdvertisement No. 5 (entry 380) for Hardware Store to be played to KyleMark, since the Hardware Store can be associated with the purchase of ahome. In another example, assume that an erroneous call placed byCynthia Stevens (entry 392) is routed to the DAS 150. The DAS 150, inthis example, could note that Cynthia Stevens has three children. Basedon this information, the DAS 150 could select an advertisement for a daycare provider (not shown) from the advertisement database 370 to beplayed to Cynthia Stevens prior to directory service.

Although a number of potential services provided by the DAS 150 havebeen illustrated herein, other services provided by various directoryassistance services may be utilized in accordance with the presentinvention.

In its basic called-number embodiments, the present invention replacesqueries to the caller with both direct and indirect derivation ofrelevant subscriber data from the intercepted called number alone. Itsderivation process enhances the information provided in the directoryassistance process, reduces time spent in voice or menu dialogs andexchanges, and avoids the errors inherent in such dialogs and exchanges.

Referring now to FIG. 4 b for an exemplary implementation of the DAS 150offering enhanced derived subscriber information.

FIG. 4 b illustrates a DAS 150 with a business subscriber informationservice 451, a white page database service 452, yellow page databaseservice 453, or a business intelligence database service 454, rule-basedexpert system service 455 and an Internet search service 456 includingaccess to public and/or private Internet search engine services.

To derive the name of the subscriber represented by the interceptednumber, the DAS 150 retrieves the listing name from a telephone companysupplied business subscriber information service 451, a white pagedatabase service 452, yellow page database service 453, or a businessintelligence database service 454, using a reverse telephone numbersearch for the unavailable telephone number.

In one embodiment, “Derived subscriber information” is defined as “anydata element a value of which can be determined from input valuesavailable at the intercept system for an intercepted call. The inputvalues available include the intercepted called number and, whenprovided in the network, the calling number. Derived subscriberinformation includes listing name, listing address, listing geographiclocation, (e.g., GeoCode, etc.) listing category or businessclassification, and listing call frequency.

The following description applies both to the processing of theintercepted number and to the processing of the subscriber nameassociated with that number as is illustrated in FIG. 4 b.

To derive the name of the subscriber represented by the interceptednumber, the DAS 150 retrieves the listing name from a telephone companysupplied business subscriber information service 451, a white pagedatabase service 452, or a business intelligence database service 454,using a reverse telephone number search for the unavailable telephonenumber.

To derive the business classification or business category of thesubscriber represented by the intercepted number, the DAS 150 retrievesthe business classification or business category of the subscriber froma yellow page database service 453, or a business intelligence databaseservice 454, using a reverse telephone number search for the unavailabletelephone number.

In one embodiment, the DAS 150 includes artificial-intelligenceembodiments. As is known in the arts, artificial intelligence includeshardware and software applications that have the ability to makedecisions and that have the ability to learn from prior decisions andincludes the reproduction of methods or results of human reasoning.

In a first artificial-intelligence embodiment, the DAS 150 obtains thebusiness classification or business category of the subscriber using arule-based expert system or other similar expert system 455 to derivethe classification or category from the business name listed for theunavailable telephone number. An exemplary method of such derivationfollows. The DAS 150: (1) derives a listing name of a subscriberrepresented by the unavailable telephone number, using services 451,452, or 454 as described above, or obtains the listing name from anotherservice; (2) uses its rule base to parse the derived listing name intosignificant words and phrases. In one exemplary embodiment, permutingwords and retrieving synonyms for significant words are used; (3)further uses its rule base to determine one or more candidate businesscategories or classifications associated with the significant words andphrases; and (4) further uses its rule base to select one preferredbusiness category or classification from among the candidatesdetermined.

In a second artificial-intelligence embodiment, the DAS 150 obtains abusiness classification or business category of the subscriber usingstatistical data and instead in step (4) above to select one preferredbusiness category or classification from among the candidatesdetermined.

In a third artificial-intelligence embodiment, the DAS 150 obtainsbusiness classification or business category of the subscriber usingheuristics and instead in steps (2)-(4) above, applies problem-solvingtechniques to analyze a listing name, determines candidate businesscategories, and selects one preferred business category orclassification from among the candidates determined.

In an Internet-search embodiment, the DAS 150 obtains businessclassification or business category of the subscriber represented by theunavailable telephone number by retrieving the business category of thesubscriber from an Internet search service 456 using a telephone numbersearch for the unavailable telephone number.

In an embodiment combining artificial intelligence methods and Internetsearch, the DAS 150 obtains a business classification or businesscategory of the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephonenumber by applying the methods of the artificial-intelligenceembodiments to the listing name of the subscriber or the businessclassification produced by the Internet search service.

Once a business category is selected or derived from the unavailabletelephone number, the invention retrieves listings in the selected orderived business category and selects one or more candidate listingsfrom among those listings retrieved, for presentation to the caller.

To derive the address or geographic location (e.g., GeoCode) of thesubscriber represented by the intercepted number, the DAS 150 retrievesan address or geographic location of the subscriber from a white pagedatabase service 452, yellow page database service 453, or a businessintelligence database service 454, using a reverse telephone numbersearch for the unavailable telephone number. Geographic location maythen be used to select candidate alternative listings to be presented toa caller.

In a DAS routing embodiment, the DAS 150 uses information derived fromthe intercepted number, such as geographic location or businessclassification, to route the caller to a specific directory assistanceservice. Numerous directory assistance services may be available toprovide service for the same or overlapping sets of related telephonenumbers related by location or classification. Such routing can providea caller with access to the best sources of information concerning abroad range of characteristics of the unavailable number called,providing for the offering of many different types of directoryassistance service to the caller.

In an ANI (automated calling number identification) embodiment, the DAS150 replaces queries to the caller with both direct and indirectderivation of relevant subscriber data from both the calling number(when available) and the intercepted called number. As for the basiccalled-number embodiments, the DAS 150 derivation process enhances theinformation provided in the directory assistance process, reduces timespent in voice or menu dialogs and exchanges, and avoids the errorsinherent in such dialogs and exchanges.

Referring again to FIG. 4 b for an exemplary implementation. Enhancedsubscriber information for both calling number and called number isderived from services 451, 452, 453, 454, 455, and 456 as for the basiccalled-number embodiments.

In an enhanced intercept system storage embodiment, any or all of thesubscriber information available from the services 451, 452, 453, 454,455, and 456 of FIG. 4 b may be stored in, and retrieved directly from,the intercept system itself, thereby saving intersystem traffic andoffering speedier responses to the caller.

See FIG. 4 c, showing the services 451, 452, 453, 454, 455, and 456residing in the system containing the intercept database 440.

In an enhanced DA system storage embodiment, any or all of thesubscriber information available from the services 451, 452, 453, 454,455, and 456 of FIG. 4 b may be stored in, and retrieved directly from,the directory assistance service or system itself, thereby savingintersystem traffic and offering speedier responses to the caller.

See FIG. 4 d, which is identical to FIG. 4 c except that the placementof the services 451, 452, 453, 454, 455, and 456 is now in the systemcontaining the directory assistance database 450.

In a caller-interactive embodiment, when the DAS 150 is unable to derivenecessary information for the intercepted number using reverse telephonenumber search from available databases, the invention sends the call toan interactive system, either interactive voice recognition oragent-based, to interact with the caller to elicit and capture necessaryinformation for the intended number.

FIGS. 4 a, 4 b, 4 c, and 4 d all illustrate an exemplary voiceprocessing system 420 which comprises the interactive system interactingwith the caller, and an operator 470 which comprises the agent-basedsystem interacting with the caller. The information elicited is used toprovide an alternate subscriber to the caller.

In an enhanced caller-interactive embodiment, the DAS 150 stores theelicited information obtained in the basic caller-interactive embodimentin an intercept database or similar database for use by all embodimentsof the present invention during later calls to the intercepted number.

The information elicited from interaction with the caller may be storedin a database in association with the intercepted number for future useduring intercepted calls made to that number.

The present invention has been described as being implemented in theDAS. However, the present invention is not limited to the DAS 150 andcan be implemented in other components.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 a and 5, an exemplary implementation of the DAS150 is illustrated in accordance with at least one embodiment of thepresent invention. Although FIG. 4 a illustrates an exemplaryconfiguration of the DAS 150 and FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplaryutilization of the DAS 150, the present invention is not intended to belimited to the illustrated implementation. Accordingly, those skilled inthe art can develop alternative implementations of the DAS 150, usingthe guidelines provided herein, without departing from the spirit or thescope of the present invention.

In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 4 a, the DAS 150 includestelephony equipment 410 to interface with a telephone network and anoperator interface 470 to interface with an operator or a pool ofoperators. The DAS 150 further includes a voice processing module 420adapted to convert speech received from a caller into a digitalrepresentation and to convert a digital speech data into synthesizedspeech for playback to the caller. The DAS 150 further includes, or hasaccess to, an intercept database 440 and a directory assistance database450. In embodiments wherein the DAS 150 is adapted to provideadvertisements during directory assistance, the DAS 150 includes or hasaccess to the advertisement database 370. A processor 430 is used toreceive information from the caller via the interface 410 and/or thevoice processing module 420, to search the intercept database 440, thedirectory assistance database 450 and/or the advertisement database 370,and to provide corresponding information to the caller via the voiceprocessing module 420 and the telephony equipment 410. The processor 430can include a microprocessor, a microcontroller, an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a used in the operation of the DAS 150, suchas power supplies, busses, and the like, are well known and are omittedfor ease of illustration.

In one embodiment, the directory assistance and at least oneadvertisement are selected based on referral fees paid by advertisers,businesses and one or more information service providers. In oneexemplary embodiment, the directory assistance and at least oneadvertisement are selected in an ordering based on an amount of areferral fee paid. In another exemplary embodiment, a pre-determinedmethod (e.g., list, first-in-first out (FIFO) queue, last-in-first-out(LIFO) queue, round-robin, etc.) is used to select the directoryassistance and the at least one advertisement.

In one embodiment, entries for advertisers, businesses and one or moreinformation service providers are located by business location andbusiness category include businesses accepting referrals offered tocallers attempting to place a telephone call to an unavailable businesstelephone number.

In another embodiment, the advertisers, businesses and one or moreinformation service providers accepting referrals offered to callersattempting to place a telephone call to an unavailable businesstelephone number comprise businesses paying for receiving the referrals.

Referring to FIG. 5 a, an operation of the system 100 to intercepterroneous calls is illustrated. The method 500 initiates with step 502,wherein a caller attempts to call an intended destination at a specifiednumber. This call can include a local call, a toll call, a long-distancecall, and the like. At step 504, an element of the PSTN 132 determinesif the number dialed is disconnected, out-of-service, not installed, orotherwise unavailable. As discussed previously, the determination ofwhether the call is to be intercepted can occur at the local centraloffice, at a point-of-presence of a long-distance carrier, at a remotecentral office and the like, based on the properties of the call, suchas a local call versus a long-distance call. If the call is to a validnumber, a circuit is completed between the originating telephone and thelanding, or destination, telephone and the call commences at step 506.

In the event that the dialed number is unavailable, the method 500proceeds to step 508, wherein the call is intercepted and routed to theDAS 150. As discussed previously, the call can be intercepted by the AIS140 and then automatically routed by the AIS 140 to the DAS 150, thecall can be routed directly to the DAS 150, or the DAS 150 can alsoimplement the functionality of the AIS 140 in addition to providingdirectory assistance. The call is received by DAS 150 at the telephonyequipment 410. The telephony equipment 410 can receive variousproperties of the call from the telephone network, such as the dialedand originating telephone numbers from an automatic number indicator(ANI) or operator number indicator (ONI) connected to the DAS 150.

At step 510, it is determined if the DAS 150 is to provide generaladvertising before, during, or after providing directory assistance tothe caller. In the event that the DAS 150 is not adapted to providegeneral advertising or general advertising is not desired, then themethod 500 proceeds to step 516. Otherwise, the processor 430 selectsone or more general ads from the advertising database 370. As discussedpreviously, the selected general advertisement(s) can be selected from acircular queue, selected based on compensation received from theadvertisers, and the like. At step 514 the selected advertisement oradvertisements are inserted before the DAS 150 provides directoryassistance to the caller. Alternatively, the selected advertisement(s)can be inserted during or after the directory assistance.

At step 516, the processor 430 utilizes the properties of the erroneouscall to search the intercept database 440 for the entry related to theunavailable number. The intercept database 440 can include theunavailable number database 310 of FIG. 3. In this case, the processor430 can find the entry corresponding to the dialed number to determinethe status of the number, the unavailable subscriber, the address of theunavailable subscriber, the classification of the unavailablesubscriber, and the like. At FIG. 5 a at step 518, the addition oftargeted advertisement based on unavailable subscriber information isevaluated. If the DAS 150 is not adapted to insert targetedadvertisements or targeted advertising not desired, the method 500continues to step 524.

Otherwise, the processor 430 selects one or more targeted advertisementsfrom the advertisement database 310 based on the information gleanedfrom the entry in the intercept database 440. As discussed previously,in one embodiment, a targeted advertisement is selected based on acomparison of its classification to the classification of theunavailable subscriber. At step 522, the targeted advertisement(s) areinserted before, during, and/or after providing directory assistance tothe caller.

At step 524, the processor 430 accesses, either directly or via operatorinput via the operator interface 470, the directory assistance database450, where the directory assistance database can include a number ofdatabases, such as geographical subscriber information databases,specialized telephone information databases, toll-free databases and thelike. For example, in at least one embodiment, the directory assistancedatabase 450 includes the available number database 350 of FIG. 3. Inthis case, the processor 430 can search the available number database350 for one or more entries that have elements in common with theunavailable subscriber associated with the unavailable number. Forexample, the processor 430 can search for a new number of theunavailable subscriber. Likewise, the processor 430 can search foravailable subscribers that have the same or a similar classification andmark such entries.

At step 526, the processor 430 formats some or all of the correspondinginformation associated with the erroneous call into data representativeof a speech sequence and provides the speech data to the voiceprocessing module 420, whereupon the data may be converted intosynthesized speech and played over the telephone system to the caller.Alternatively, the information could be presented to an operator, andthe operator could relay the information to the caller.

Additionally, at the step 526, the DAS 150 could interact with thecaller to further specify the desired information. For example, if theprocessor 430 finds three entries in the directory assistance databasehaving classifications that match exactly the classification of thedialed number, the processor 430, via the voice processor module 420,could query the caller as to which entry the caller would prefer. Thecaller could then reply via the phone, where the caller's audible replyis converted to a digital signal by the voice processing module 420 andprovided to the processor 430 for interpretation. Alternatively, thecaller could interact by pressing keys on the telephone used by thecaller, and the resulting tones or signals could be interpreted by theDAS 150.

At step 528, the DAS 150, in one embodiment, queries the caller to seeif the information provided was adequate or to discern if additionalassistance is desired. This query can be performed by requesting aninput from the caller, or requesting the caller wait for additionalassistance. If the caller requires additional assistance or information,the caller can be routed to an operator at step 530 for additionalassistance. The operator then can attempt to locate any additionalinformation requested by the caller, and provide the additionalinformation to the caller at step 526. If the information provided isadequate or if the caller terminates the call, the directory assistancecall terminates at step 532, whereupon the circuit between the caller'stelephone and the DAS 150 is made available to other circuits.

It will be appreciated that at least one implementation of the presentinvention results in a decrease in the effort expended by a caller tolocate an intended subscriber or alternate subscriber when an erroneouscall is made. In one embodiment, the service provider implementing thepresent invention can charge the erroneous caller a modest fee inexchange for the directory assistance service and/or some additionalservices. For example, prior to being routed to the DAS 150, the AIS 140could playback a recorded message to the caller informing the callerthat the call is being routed to directory assistance and that a feewill be charged for this service and then prompt the customer with theoption to continue or to disconnect the call. Similarly, the callercould be prompted to choose to listen to one or more advertisements inexchange for the directory assistance, or a combination of advertisingand a fee could be selected by the caller in exchange for directoryassistance.

It should be understood that the architecture, programs, processes,methods and systems described herein are not related or limited to anyparticular type of computer or network system (hardware or software),unless indicated otherwise. Various types of general purpose orspecialized computer systems may be used with or perform operations inaccordance with the teachings described herein.

In view of the wide variety of embodiments to which the principles ofthe present invention can be applied, it should be understood that theillustrated embodiments are exemplary only, and should not be taken aslimiting the scope of the present invention. For example, the steps ofthe flow diagrams may be taken in sequences other than those described,and more or fewer elements may be used in the block diagrams.

While various elements of the preferred embodiments have been describedas being implemented in software, in other embodiments hardware orfirmware implementations may alternatively be used, and vice-versa.

The claims should not be read as limited to the described order orelements unless stated to that effect. In addition, use of the term“means” in any claim is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 6,and any claim without the word “means” is not so intended.

Therefore, all embodiments that come within the scope and spirit of thefollowing claims and equivalents thereto are claimed as the invention.

1. A system for deriving information associated with an unavailabletelephone number or subscriber and providing said information to acaller attempting to place a telephone call to said unavailabletelephone number, the system comprising in combination: an interceptsystem coupled to a directory assistance service, wherein the interceptsystem intercepts the telephone call on a telephony network to theunavailable number before initiating any action by the telephony networkback to the caller, wherein the unavailable number includes non-existentnumbers or numbers not implemented on the telephony network; thedirectory assistance service, wherein the directory assistance and atleast one advertisement are selected based on referral fees paid byadvertisers and one or more information service providers; and the oneor more information services coupled to the directory assistanceservice, wherein the direct assistance service uses the one or moreinformation services to search for information about the unavailablenumber and the caller's number to provide additional information andadvertising to the caller from the one or more information sourcesexternal to the telephony network and one or more information sourcesinternal to the telephony network.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theintercept system coupled to the directory assistance service comprises:a means for intercepting the telephone call made to the unavailabletelephone number; a means for routing the telephone call to thedirectory assistance service; and a means for providing at least oneadvertisement to the caller.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein aplurality of the one or more information services is coupled to theintercept system.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein a plurality of theone or more information services resides within the intercept system. 5.The system of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more informationservices is selected from the group consisting of: a) a businesssubscriber information service coupled to the directory assistancesystem; b) a white page database service coupled to the directoryassistance system; c) a yellow pages database service coupled to thedirectory assistance system; d) a business intelligence database servicecoupled to the directory assistance system; e) a rule-based expertsystem service coupled to the directory assistance service; and f) anInternet search service coupled to the directory assistance system. 6.The system of claim 1, wherein the intercept system is further coupledto one or more additional database services selected from the groupconsisting of: a) a business subscriber information service; b) a whitepage database service; c) a yellow pages database service; d) a businessintelligence database service; e) a rule-based expert system service;and f) an Internet search service.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein thedirectory assistance service is coupled to the one or more additionaldatabase services.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein a plurality of theone or more additional database services contains information derivedfrom a telephone number.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein theinformation derived from a telephone number comprises: listing name;listing address; listing geographic location; listing business category;and listing call frequency.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein thedirectory assistance service contains entries for businesses are locatedby business location and business category.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein the entries for businesses are located by business location andbusiness category include businesses accepting referrals offered tocallers attempting to place a telephone call to an unavailable businesstelephone number.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the businessesaccepting referrals offered to callers attempting to place a telephonecall to an unavailable business telephone number comprise businessespaying for receiving said referrals.
 13. The system of claim 11, whereinthe entries for businesses able to be located by business location andbusiness category represent businesses represented by the caller'sbusiness telephone number.
 14. A method of deriving information from anunavailable telephone number and subscriber, the method comprising thesteps of: detecting a caller's telephone call to an unavailable numberon a telephony network; intercepting the telephone call on the telephonynetwork to the unavailable number before initiating any action by thetelephony network back to the caller, wherein the unavailable numberincludes non-existent numbers or numbers not implemented on thetelephony network; automatically routing the detected and interceptedtelephone call to an automatic intercept system associated with adirectory assistance service; automatically routing the detected andintercepted telephone call from the automatic intercept system to thedirectory assistance service; providing directory assistance to thecaller; determining information associated with the unavailabletelephone number; and determining information associated with theunavailable telephone subscriber, wherein the directory assistance isselected based on referral fees paid by advertisers and other serviceproviders.
 15. The method of claim 14 further comprising a computerreadable medium having stored therein software instructions allowing oneor more processors to execute the steps of the method.
 16. The method ofclaim 14, wherein the step of deriving the business category of thesubscriber represented by the telephone number further comprises thesteps of: a) deriving the listing name of the subscriber represented bythe telephone number; b) parsing said listing name into listing namewords and phrases; c) determining one or more business categoriesassociated with the listing name words and phrases; d) selecting thederived business category from among the one or more determined businesscategories.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of deriving thelisting name of the subscriber represented by the telephone numberincludes the step of retrieving the listing name of the subscriber froman Internet search engine using a telephone number search for thecaller's telephone number.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein the stepof determining one or more business categories associated with thelisting name words and phrases includes the step applying logical rulesfrom a rule base with the rule-based expert system, applying statisticalrules from compiled statistics with the rule-based expert system orapplying heuristics rule-based expert system service to the listing namewords and phrases.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein the step ofderiving the business category of the subscriber represented by thecaller's telephone number includes the step of retrieving the businesscategory of said subscriber from an Internet search engine using atelephone number search for the caller's telephone number.
 20. Themethod of claim 16, wherein the step of determining information from theunavailable telephone number includes the step of deriving the locationof the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephone number. 21.The method of claim 20, wherein the step of deriving the location of thesubscriber represented by the unavailable telephone number includes thestep of using a reverse telephone number search for the unavailabletelephone number to retrieve the subscriber location from a serviceselected from the group consisting of: a white page database service; ayellow pages database service; a business intelligence database service;a rule-based expert system service; and a service providing telephonecompany supplied business subscriber information.
 22. The method ofclaim 20, wherein the step of deriving the location of the subscriberrepresented by the unavailable telephone number includes the step ofderiving the address of the subscriber represented by the unavailabletelephone number.
 23. The method of claim 20, wherein the step ofderiving the location of the subscriber represented by the unavailabletelephone number includes the step of deriving the geographic code(GeoCode) of the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephonenumber.